Vistra's battery storage facility goes up in flames
One of the world’s largest battery storage facilities — Vistra Corp’s (VST.N), 3000-megawatt in Moss Landing, south of San Francisco — continues to be on fire as of Friday, a day after it went up in flames.
The blaze, whose cause remains under investigation, is expected to remain contained to the building.
The fire is nowhere near the Los Angeles-area wildfires.
Fire Chief Joel Mendoza of the North County Fire District said at this point, most of the fire had gone out. He was speaking at a press conference held by the County of Monterey.
“We have very little active flame (and) we have very little products of combustion being put out into the atmosphere,” he added.
A water-based mitigation system did not work as designed, Vistra’s senior director of community affairs Brad Watson said at the conference.
“Part of what we will be doing is studying and investigating why that didn’t work as designed. And that will be one of the many, many questions we will be going through to find out what happened here,” Watson added.
Earlier in the day, a Monterey Sheriff official had said there were no active fire suppression efforts going on, “as the best approach, according to fire staff, is to allow the building and batteries to burn.”
Both Vistra and the county official said that all site personnel had been evacuated and no injuries were reported. The fire had also prompted evacuation of places nearby.
Vistra has not yet released a statement on the potential financial impact of the fire or a timeline for recovery efforts.
Vistra did not immediately respond to a request seeking details on its investigation.
The official added that an adjacent Tesla battery facility was not affected by the fire.
The impact of the ongoing fire on the energy storage sector and the supply chain remains unclear.
Lithium-ion batteries have solidified their position as the technology of choice in the electric vehicle market, and the market for these batteries is projected to keep growing at about 30% annually.
Reporting by Vallari Srivastava, Seher Dareen, Mrinalika Roy, Shubham Kalia, Kanjyik Ghosh, and Gursimran Kaur in Bengaluru; Editing by Clarence Fernandez, Sharon Singleton, Leroy Leo, and Shailesh Kuber.
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